JAKARTA - The funeral procession for the late Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, began in Tehran on Monday, according to government television reports, as authorities prepared for a crowd that could rival the number of people who attended his predecessor almost four decades ago.
The ceremony gave Iran a chance to show resilience after five weeks of war with the United States and Israel, while attention remains focused on Khamenei's successor, his son Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since taking over.
After being laid to rest for two days at the Grand Mosalla religious complex in Tehran, Khamenei's body - who was killed on the first day of the Middle East war on February 28 - began his journey through the capital accompanied by a large crowd of mourners, according to a report by the Government broadcaster IRIB, launching Al Arabiya and AFP (6/7).
Mourners gathered at Imam Hussein Square in eastern Tehran.
Previously, thousands of people crowded the Grand Mosalla on Sunday to pay their last respects to Khamenei and four members of his family, all of whom were killed on February 28 in an Israeli air strike based on US intelligence.
Monday's procession will be followed by similar events at the Qom City religious center on Tuesday and in Iraq's holy cities of Najaf and Karbala on Wednesday, culminating in Khamenei's funeral in his birthplace, Mashhad, in northeastern Iran on Thursday.
Three of Ali Khamenei's sons made rare public appearances at Sunday's funeral, further highlighting the absence of Mojtaba Khamenei, who was appointed supreme leader shortly after his father's death but has yet to appear in public.
Officials said he was wounded in the airstrike, but the severity of his injuries was unclear.
The new commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi appeared at a funeral for the second time on Sunday, this time in an open space, after he had not been seen throughout the war.
Brigadier General Esmail Qaani, head of the IRGC's Quds Force - which is responsible for its overseas operations - also appeared for the second time.
Although Iranian authorities are keen to present a united front, none of President Masoud Pezeshkian's surviving predecessors, who had tensions in their relations with Khamenei, have so far been seen at the ceremony.
The government also wants to boast about mass mobilization to support the government after mass protests in January that human rights groups say were quelled by a crackdown that killed thousands of people.
The Middle East war was suspended after a ceasefire and initial agreement reached with the US.
Both Washington and Tehran have warned they are ready to resume military action, and revenge has been a major theme of the funeral.
Khamenei has long taken a confrontational path with the West, and Tehran has for years provided support to anti-US and anti-Israel armed groups across the Middle East, including Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah, both of which sent delegations to the ceremony.
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